


A Bow in the Moonlight

by contained (trulygross)



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study?, Drabble, Experimental Style, M/M, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:42:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24986998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trulygross/pseuds/contained
Summary: Gotham's famous clown lightly muses on the fun (and not so fun) bits of performing for his number one fan slash costar.
Relationships: Joker (DCU)/Bruce Wayne
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	A Bow in the Moonlight

The moon is his favorite spotlight.

It beats the hot bulb beaming from the ceiling of studios, or the icky fluorescent that turns him into a lemon, by miles and miles and miles .

How the celestial light hits the buildings, cars, glass, steel―

shiny, shiny, shiny!

―and turns their edges white, a hue of innocence, a shade of purity. Begging for the final Midas touch.

A little ash here, some gunpowder there, and crimson streaked across asphalt or pooling at his feet, like confetti and streamers celebrating a job well done.

Some nights he received roaring acclaim―

screaming,  all of  ‘em, screaming for him, the banshees. Ah, he could blush!

Others, it was a mother’s hollow sobs echoing in an alleyway, or a man’s enraged howl from an apartment.

Oh, the epitome of tugging heartstrings, innit?

A parent’s _undying_ love.

It could bring a tear to his eye. If his vision wasn’t already blurry from laughing his spleen out.

Having the entire city’s eyes on him was always pretty fun. And those times when the whole wide world tuned into his performance? Oh he’s still dizzy from stardom!

But he would just as quickly pull a trigger and really blow the crowd away...  Watch the pathetic waste of space extras give their final bow, clumsy and disgraceful as they stumble and tumble down down down to their knees, holding their bleeding hearts til they give out. One after the other, like plucking off daisy petals.

Much better than a bundle of roses.

After all, they were never his target audience.

He stops, spine tingling, hairs standing like dozens of compass needles when darkness passes over him in the blink of an eye. Like the bulb of his spotlight had flickered off and on.

His lips curl, squishing his cheeks against his eyes.

Oh he’d  gladly  blow all those millions of beady lifeless eyes away like fleshy firecrackers if it meant those  ghostly  pupils were on him―

_A blue ring hides beneath the white curtains._

Ugh.

Every now and again he’d hear something, like a hissy gas leak in a pipe buried in a rusty, moldy labyrinth.

A little nasty thing that liked to steal his thunder.

_There's a normal man under the-_

no, no, NO!

He didn’t like to think about that.

Bats don’t have blue eyes

that’s no fun

you're no fun!

No fun, no fun, no fun, no fun,no fun, no fun,no fun, no fun,no fun, no fun, no fun, no fun, no fun, no fun, no fun, nofunnofunnofun-

SHUT UP!

A sharp crack leaves a blazing sting in his noggin.

He finds the right side of his head pounding, warm and heavy, like a heartbeat.

Blinking away the stars in his eyes, he finds himself huffing and puffing through his teeth like an asthmatic and-Huh, look at that, the butt of his revolver's pressed against his temple .

_Silly clown, your head’s not a marching drum._

But at least it's quiet again.

_Clickity-clack._

He spins around, his smile returning, as big and pearly as a crescent moon.

It’s dead quiet on set, but he hears it, like the highest note on a piano, at the tippity-top of the scale. Yes, yes, subtle, almost imperceptible to the common human ear. But one can’t help but develop such a keen sense of hearing with such a sneaky playmate.

How thoughtful of him to drop Joker a cue to come back to himself and finish their scene.

“On with the show!”  He announces to the dark alleyway, renewed and invigorated, like it's opening night all over again. 

His arms fan up up up, and way out to the side like a ringleader, and with a chuckle, he hops, skips, runs his merry way to places where the light doesn’t shine .

**Author's Note:**

> A quick piece I did a while ago that was collecting dust in my google docs. I'm not sure if I meant to come back and add more, but it ended on a pretty conclusive note, so I decided to leave it as it is. And I want to get into the habit of writing and posting fic, so I decided, why not start with something simple.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
